News, Printable batteries. (lcd, plasma, display, support)

[John1960]

For a long time, batteries were bulky and heavy. Now, a new cutting-edge battery is revolutionizing the field. It is thinner than a millimeter, lighter than a gram, and can be produced cost-effectively through a printing process.

Printable batteries

[Tek_Freek]

Printable solar cells, and now printable batteries. Time to start a new printing business?

[f_m]

Well, "printing" for manufacturing of parts is becoming more common, though not at a cheap price point yet. Still the process introduces manufacturing efficiency greater than alternative or current means. Right now OLED displays are printed in the lab too (OLED is predicted to replace LCD and plasma, although the time frame continues to change). Similar technologies like FDM (fused deposition modeling) make plastic parts in a "print" type process by melting then solidifying material in the desired order. Vapor deposition does the same process, but the material is vaporized then condensed into the desired location.

So the whole "print" concept is significant, because it's opposite the typical manufacturing processes, where you take a raw "chunk" of material and cut it down to size or cast it into a mold, etc...

[Kellem]

Originally Posted by Tek_Freek

Printable solar cells, and now printable batteries. Time to start a new printing business?

Actually some of the research regarding printable devices, specially roll-to-roll printing, is being driven or supported by the printing industry. They are the ones that have the expertise on how to scale these processes, so they have a vested interested in seeing these kind of research through.